dna edit: 'Small' leak, huge impact

For a city indebted to the sea, Mumbai has expressed gratitude by routinely dumping human faeces and industrial waste into the waters. And now a “small leakage” in a crude oil pipeline in the city’s east coast has destroyed around 30 acres of mangroves and marine life. If dna hadn’t reported about the extent of the damage, the incident would have been quietly buried in government files. To cover up its failure in taking prompt action to plug the leak, the Mumbai Port Trust has tried to downplay the incident, but environmentalists and the fishermen of Mahul are least likely to sit quiet. The fishermen have been vocal because their livelihoods are at stake.

The quantum of their daily catch has dropped sharply as the fish and crabs along the coast are either dead or have moved deeper into the sea. What is surprising and infuriating is the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board’s nonchalant response amid reports that about a 1,000 litres of crude oil has entered the sea.

Secure in the belief that the sea can survive an oil spill, the state government will do little to control the damage. Only days before this catastrophe it was reported that the sea in some tourist spots in the city is so polluted with human faeces that it poses serious health hazards for those who come in contact with the water. Faced with defunct sewage treatment plants, the civic administration took the easy way out by dumping tonnes of untreated human waste into the sea.

The severely damaged sea along Mumbai looks like a floating mass of garbage. Its water has turned inky black after years of abuse, the thick layer of dirt on the surface visible even at night.

Mumbai isn’t bothered even though it has spent crores to beautify the waterfront where thousands of people take a break after a hectic day. The sea is what keeps Mumbaikars going in a city that is perpetually starved of open spaces, where people live a cramped existence in pigeon-hole flats.

Though we are yet to gauge the full impact of the spill, the effects will be far-reaching and can last for decades. A 1,000 litres of  oil can spread over a wide area, thus putting marine life at grave risk. The first sign of damage is dead fish floating, which has already happened off the Mahul coast. It will not be easy to get rid of that oil either. Even after massive clean-up efforts following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, a 2007 study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that 26,000 gallons of oil was still trapped in the sand along the Alaska shoreline. Marine biologists believe that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico has permanently damaged the sea and wiped out several species of aquatic life. There are several such examples of fragile ecosystems lost to human callousness. This time too it will be no different.